Part 12 of the CONTROL Resonant playthrough settles into Central, the district Dylan Faden keeps coming back to between larger missions. With the subway power crisis wrapped up, the session turns into a tour of the neighborhood’s side content, from a hidden arcade machine to a stray rooftop dog and a defensive skirmish with the Hiss. It is a good snapshot of what Central actually contains once the main story stops pushing you forward.
Where Central sits after Power Lines
The episode opens on the tail end of a boss fight against Sandra, an infected Mold-type enemy holed up in a neon-green maintenance room beneath the Evacuation Zone power station. Clearing Sandra and the surrounding Mold pods closes out the Power Lines quest, which frees Dr. Florez and the evacuees waiting in the subway. The reward is a Living Shard.
At the subway turnstiles, Dylan can speak with Dr. Florez, with dialogue prompts that include “You could join the fight” and “I wish I knew.” Nothing here gates the story, but it marks the point where Central opens back up. The Quest Log at this stage lists several parallel threads, including The West Incursion Zone Resonant and The Park Resonant, so the nearest waypoint is not necessarily the one that moves the campaign along.
Central’s street combat against the Hiss
Back on the surface, Central plays as a daytime slice of a warped Manhattan, with Dylan gliding between rooftops and dropping into street-level fights. The area is still contested by the Hiss, and the session runs into both grounded units and floating Distorted variants around scaffolding and building faces. These are not scripted set pieces so much as roaming encounters that fill the district between objectives.
The SHÜM III arcade and the Parkour: Central challenge
A notable discovery sits in the rear corner of an Urban Fresh Mart convenience store: a retro arcade cabinet. It runs SHÜM III and bears the credit “©1991 BON-CO ENTERTAINMENT”. The title screen displays a leaderboard before starting the “Parkour: Central” challenge.
The minigame itself is a timed obstacle course. It sends the player through numbered floating checkpoint rings, bouncing off industrial fans and vents, while avoiding red laser tripwires. Clipping a laser adds a time penalty of +3 or +6 seconds, which is enough to end a serious run. The course rewards clean movement over caution, and the leaderboard makes the goal explicit.
The existing top time on the board is LAU at 00:56. Beating that mark is what the reward is tied to. After a string of attempts, several ending on laser hits or missed jumps, the run finally lands at 00:53, posting a new high score and pushing DYL to the top of the leaderboard.
Setting the top score pays out concrete rewards rather than just bragging rights. Here is what the finish screen grants.
| Reward | Detail |
|---|---|
| Power Upgrade Point | 1 of 3; collect 3 to improve Power |
| Stubble | Facial hair customization (Reset Item) |
| Central Zone Level | Advances to Level 8 |
The ice cream truck vendor and Vendor Levels
Central’s FBC vendor is an ice cream truck parked on the street. It sells Aberrant crafting materials, Echoes, and Artifacts, with several Echoes priced at 750. Its stock is gated behind Vendor Levels, and some items stay locked until you reach a higher tier.
Untapped Bug Spray is a clear example. It adds +30% Blunt Damage and Falter against Mold enemies but doubles the Infected build-up Dylan takes, and it carries a “Requires Vendor Level III” tag. Reaching Central Zone Level 8 through the arcade did not immediately open that tier, which is why the vendor gets a second check right after the parkour reward.
Rooftop side content: the dog, the photo, and Hold the Line
Central’s rooftops hold a handful of smaller discoveries that fill out the district.
- A stray dog rests near a rooftop garden on an upper apartment. Interacting with it, Dylan notes that it wants a toy.
- Where in Central was the Instant Photo key item captured? It shows birds launching from a rooftop, a nearby billboard bearing the words “Building the City That Never Sleeps,” and a neighboring skyscraper with multiple windows.
- A Central Frontline fast travel door is activated on a rooftop, giving quicker movement around the zone.
The district’s timed activity here is the Hold the Line World Feat. FBC Rangers call for help defending a supply cargo crate placed at a street intersection, and Dylan clears the incoming Hiss waves to complete it. Finishing the Feat grants Source and materials, and confirmation comes as an on-screen “World Feat Completed HOLD THE LINE” banner.
What Central points toward next
The session closes with Dylan scouting for a path toward the West Incursion Zone, checking closed gates and utility alleys that hint at underground testing facilities. That lines up with the active quest markers for The West Incursion Zone Resonant and its objective to investigate the Theater. For now, though, Part 12 is mostly about wringing rewards out of Central itself, and the SHÜM III arcade run is the clearest payoff of the lot.
